So loud the battle din
That Ares loves was raised around his rear,
A conflict hard e'en for his dragon foe.[1]
For breath of haughty speech
Zeus hateth evermore;
And seeing them advance,
With mighty rushing stream,
And clang of golden arms,130
With brandished fire he hurls
One who rushed eagerly
From topmost battlement
To shout out, "Victory!"
Stroph. II.
Crashing to earth he fell,[2]
Down-smitten, with his torch,
Who came, with madman's haste,
Drunken, with frenzied soul,
And swept o'er us with blasts,
The whirlwind blasts of hate.
Thus on one side they fare,
And Ares great, like war-horse in his strength,
Smiting now here, now there,
Brought each his several fate.140
For seven chief warriors at the seven gates met,
Equals with equals matched,
To Zeus, the Lord of War,
Left tribute, arms of bronze;
All but the hateful ones,
- ↑ As the Argive army was compared to the eagle, so Thebes to the eagle's great enemy, the dragon. Here, probably, there was a half-latent reference to the mythos of the descent of the Thebans from the dragon's teeth sown by Cadmos.
- ↑ The unnamed leader whose fall is thus singled out for special mention was Capaneus, who bore on his shield the figure of a naked man brandishing a torch and crying, "I will burn the city."
